Well its going to be a long post but I'll start with thanking the people who came down to see me off at the airport. Special thanks go out to my family, Bobby, Kai, Marcus, Roy, Daphne, King Hee, Sammy, and Yiyang for forgoing some possible angbao money to see me off! Hope you guys are having a good time in school and all the best yea!
I must admit the moment which I bid my mother farewell was hard to swallow. She was in tears and it dawned upon me that it was going to be another 169 days before I see her again. Well but I guess this experience would never come knocking twice, and I think it will be like real soon before I see her again! All hail Skype for making it so easy for me to communicate with my mum! Hurraf.
And so, the 5 of us are off to Amsterdam! This was the pre-departure picture we took right before boarding the plane.
The five of us at London, where we transitted to Amsterdam. What happened in between these 2 pictures probably summed up the unluckiest start to a travel for me, ever. On the plane, we had a drink of our choice when the plane took off. I took my favourite Coke as usual, and had the misfortune of spilling half a glass onto my seat, my jeans as well as the handphone pouch. You know that yucky feeling of some sweet drink on your skin? Well if you thought that was bad, what followed was worse! Seb, Weiliang and I played 3 man-daidee and we were trying to drink ourselves to sleep. I drank 2 mixed drinks, tried to get some sleep, only to end up merlioning whatever I drank and ate on the plane. That buildup to the merlion was one of the most horrible feeling I had ever! Imagine being on the plane, where you couldn't get off, you feel your head spinning and your stomach tossing, you break into cold sweat and your nose starts dripping, and the next moment you're struggling to get the nearest waste paper bag, but failing to find it, instead puking into this makeshift plastic bag that was previously used to contain the headsets in the plane. Yea in short, a NIGHTMARISH start to a trip.
Oh well, soon enough, we got to Amsterdam at 940am on 28th January, or 440pm Singapore time. (I am still trying to adjust to this time difference as I type here, but yea its getting better) and another not so good thing which happened was finding our backpacks damaged. It was pretty bad, but the only other positive to take out of it was all the luggage were accounted for, and we were soon on our way to the accomodation office!
A picture of us with one of the coaches who was nice to bring us to the place where we picked up our house keys.
The first day in Amsterdam is probably one big highlight of this trip. Why so? Having never been to Europe before, I was awestruck by all the buildings and things I saw/heard/felt. The weather that greeted us was a freezing -3 degrees; Dutch people speak dutch like they've got bad sore throats; the buildings look exactly like the one I built as Lego's Cafe Corner not too long ago; and the trees here are the botany counterparts of monks. So much so that I did not realise that I should have been taking photos! Which explains the lack of it so far, but yea just be patient.
The trip to collecting the keys was another unforgettable experience. *note that I did not use the word memorable, for it was anything but it. Picture this, 14kg on your back, a 30kg trolley on your left hand and a 10kg trolley on your right. You walk with this baggage for a good 10 minutes before getting to the place where almost every other exchange student from all over the world go as well... yes it sucked. But like what the coach said 'its all part of the experience'. I'll keep the process of getting the keys short, but yea after getting the keys, the hard part was to travel with the trolley and getting to my accomodation.
My accomodation is officially known as Prins Henrikkade, which is in Amsterdam Central. Unfortunately, the street is pretty long that I ended up walking past my accomodation for a good 5 minutes before I realised I was way past it! By this time, I was switching the trolleys are regular intervals because it was so hard to fight the chilly cold on your fingers, pushing the trolleys through uneven roads that were littered with chewing gum and dog poo. When I eventually found it, I still had the final task of bringing all the luggage up 4 storeys, and my block didn't have a lift. Unforgettable really.
Well, I think I ranted long enough, but all's pretty much forgiven when I managed to get into my room. Its like a really big and comfortable place!
The view from right outside my room, right before I step into it.
My desk which is facing the faculty of humanities, the campuses of UvA are all over Amsterdam, and my accomodation is right in the same campus as the faculty of humanities. This is the view I get from my desk.
When I turn behind, I get a really nice slanting window which gives me a great view of what's outside.
Oh yea, one of the first complaints I had was the way they design window panes. Its seriously not friendly for short people like us.
As you can see, the window pane is slanted, and I stand at where the orange jacket in the picture is. Guess where the window handle is?
Yes, right at the top. The freaking top which is like a good 20cm above me. I bet my Slovakian roommate must have been laughing his ass off when I asked him how to open the window. I will show more evidence of European un-friendliness in due time, I've found a few already!
Other neat things include,
A heater. Yes, its the sort of things that anyone in Singapore would never appreciate. But in Europe, especially during winter, they treasure this like how we treasure a great air conditioner. Hahaha.
And how I can live without a kitchen? This kitchen is pretty simple, but its got like the neccessities, so all's good!
I've got so much more to share, but yes I am afraid I have to end here, if not I will miss out on a lot more sight-seeing tomorrow. Will update this space again when I have more time tomorrow!
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